On April 11-12 we poured the concrete bottom for the new two million gallon tank that will hold the digestate from the new anaerobic methane digester that we are building. The base is rebar spaced on eight inch centers, with eight inches of concrete poured on top of a 3×2 foot concrete foundation. Overall the pad took about 100 yards of concrete. We had concrete specialists come in to work on the pad from all over the east coast, the lead guy came in all the way from Pennsylvania.

Digestate is the post-processed material from the digester, consisting of digested food waste and manure. This nutrient-rich slurry will get spread on our fields to provide additional natural fertilizer and reduce the need to use chemical fertilizers on our fields. To learn more about how anaerobic digestion works in general (not just how we’re using it on our farm) and some of its applications in renewable energy, you can check out the Wikipedia article which is packed full of great information.